


Drowning of the Past

by Kayleegee



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post Season 3, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 10:00:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3932575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayleegee/pseuds/Kayleegee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Over the past few months, slowly, she feels like she’s been making her way up to the surface, and she can feel herself about to break through the water’s surface. It’s a good feeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drowning of the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Swim Until You Can’t See Land by Frightened Rabbit

It’s pushing 2pm on a Thursday when Laurel pushes herself away from her computer, having been reviewing plea bargains most of the morning into early afternoon. She rolls her left shoulder gingerly. Last night she had been thrown into the side of a garbage bin and two nights before that she’d been grazed by a bullet, and she’s definitely feeling it today.

Two weeks have passed since Starling City was almost wiped out by Ra’s Al Ghul. The city is getting its rhythm back, most people unfortunately used to always being in mortal danger at some point every year, usually spring. But while Ra’s Al Ghul and the League have been taken care of, there are still petty crooks and would be rapists to take care of, and Laurel believes now more than ever that there are more ways to find justice than just in the confines of a courtroom. She’s made peace with her choice to blur the lines of law.

She gets up from her chair and looks out her office window. She stands there a moment, feeling good. She remembers telling Sara that she had felt like she had went down on the Gambit with Sara and Oliver, feeling as though she had been slowly drowning for years. Over the past few months, slowly, she feels like she’s been making her way up to the surface, and she can feel herself about to break through the water’s surface. It’s a good feeling. 

She decides it’s time for an iced latte. She grabs her phone and debit card before calling out to Deb, one of the paralegals that she’s going out for a few minutes and asks if she wants anything. Deb shakes her head but tells Laurel to drop by the fifth floor. Judge Wallace needs a signature. Laurel heads out the office and makes her way to the fifth floor to Judge Wallace’s office. She quickly signs the documents needed and heads out his office but stops when she sees Oliver down the hallway a ways. 

Oliver, in a light gray suit, stands in the middle of the hallway, looking to the opposite end away from Laurel like he’s waiting for someone. Next to him stands Walter Steele, a pleasant smile, waiting patiently unlike Oliver, who is shifting from one foot to another, and Laurel can see his right thumb rubbing his right index finger so fast Laurel wonders if a spark will catch. He seems...nervous, and if Laurel wasn’t so furious with him right now, she might find it endearing. 

Laurel hasn’t talked to Oliver since the night they took down Ra’s. There’s something about being duped into thinking you’ve been betrayed by your ex-boyfriend/supposed soulmate that really takes it out of you. The gamble Oliver took with her life, all of the team’s lives, hurts deeply. She nonchalantly ducks behind one of the big pillars in the hallway, not at all interested in talking to Oliver. She doesn’t really know what to say. She made her feelings pretty clear that night. She and Digg had walked out on Oliver’s explanation that night. It had been too little, too late. 

She peeks around the pillar, cringing at her sudden devolution into middle school avoidance tactics, and sees Oliver visibly brighten as he takes a few steps towards the center staircase. It’s Felicity and Thea he sees, walking up to Oliver and Walter.

Thea is dressed in a deep purple dress and strappy sandals. Felicity is wearing, of all colors, an emerald green sleeveless sheath dress. Her hair isn’t in its usual ponytail, but curled softly. Laurel can’t see Oliver’s face now but he says something that makes Felicity blush, self consciously pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. He gives her a chaste kiss on the lips before hugging Thea. Laurel notes that Thea looks happier than she’s looked in a long while. The three make their way to Walter who congenitally says hello to Felicity and hugs Thea, kissing the top of her head. They all look so happy. The lawyer’s curiosity tugs at Laurel and she’s wondering why they are all there. 

Laurel’s immediate thought is that they must be doing some legal business regarding Palmer Technologies. Ray handed it over to Felicity, who was quickly named President and CEO. One of her first acts was to hire Walter as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. But there aren’t any lawyers hanging around, or press for that matter, so Laurel quickly dismisses that assumption.

Laurel watches Thea set her purse down on a bench and pull out a long box. She opens it and Laurel actually stops breathing for a second when she sees the bouquet Thea hands Felicity. They’re here to get married. Oliver and Felicity. They are getting married. Never, in a million years, would she have thought that this would be the next logical step for Oliver and Felicity. 

Felicity smells the bouquet and Oliver looks on, a huge smile on his face. A smile Laurel hasn’t seen in eight plus years. A clerk approaches and shakes hands with Oliver, and then Felicity. The clerk says something and Oliver bobs his head as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. It must be the marriage license. The clerk beckons them inside the courtroom and starts in, Walter and Thea following. Oliver and Felicity hang back a minute and Laurel watches as Felicity says something to Oliver and he laughs and grins, but says nothing back. Instead he pulls her close and kisses her deeply before taking her hand and pulling her inside the courtroom. 

Laurel finds her way back to her office after that, Deb giving her a quizzical look as to why there is no latte in her hand. Laurel feels a little dazed, to be honest. And not for reasons she expects. She has no illusions about where she and Oliver stand in terms of their relationship. It’s been a hard year, and she wasn’t lying to him when she told him she couldn’t remember what it was like to love him. No, Laurel finds herself more shocked that a wedding involving Oliver Queen is taking place. Regardless of who the bride is. 

Still though, she sits down in her office chair and waits for a small part of her to be sad about this. Shouldn’t she be sad about this? Oliver was her first love, and for a very long time her life revolved around Oliver Queen, even those years he was on a deserted island. Shouldn’t there be an ache for better days when they were together? But those weren’t better days, Laurel knows. Laurel sees that now. If anything, Laurel feels sad for Felicity, who is too in love to see the damage Oliver will cause her. 

So no, there are no tears or jealousy over what she has just seen. And the anger and bitter disappointment she’s feeling towards Oliver has nothing to do with any feelings of love she ever had for him, but for the choices he’s made in the past year. Laurel has well and truly moved past Oliver. 

It’s oddly empowering. Laurel sits back in her chair and looks out her office window to the sun. She doesn’t want to jinx it, but Laurel is pretty sure this is what having your head above water feels like.


End file.
